Rehab bands for kicking have always been one of my favorite ways to warm up, get a workout in, and cool down. Rehab bands allow your body to use every muscle for kicking but with added resistance.
Unlike with leg weights, bands allow you to work on more than just your leg muscles.
Rehab bands for kicking are meant to work your core, hips, legs, and other essential muscles for kicking.
We will quickly highlight three main ways rehab bands for kicking can be used:
- Warm Up Kicks with rehab bands
- Kicking With Rehab Bands
- Getting Stronger With Rehab Bands
What are rehab bands and what do they do?
Rehab bands are another form of resistance bands. They are great for strengthening the muscles used in kicking.
Very often, we think that we need to do squats, deadlifts, and lunges and that will build all the strength necessary for kicking.
While those are all very good list to get stronger with, kicking is more about functional strength, and getting stronger using your whole body, then just doing squats.
How much of a squatting motion is replicated in kicking?
Exactly.
Using your kicking motion but adding resistance to it is one of the best ways to naturally get stronger the fastest in kicking.
That’s where rehab bands come in. They add resistance to the kicking motion so you feel stronger, and more explosive in your swing.
They come in many forms, but my favorite form of rehab bands for kicking are the ones with the ankle straps connected to them.
I will include a link here for those that would want to get Kicking rehab bands. (I get a commission from these sales at no cost to you)
Rehab Bands For Kicking Warm Ups
A good warm-up is essential for any athlete who wants to perform at their highest level. They also get the muscles loose, so they can all be used without risk of injury.
Rehab bands are a great way to get the muscles warmed up especially when you are about to start kicking.
I like to wrap the rehab bands around a strong structure like a field goal post, and simply go through some kicking motions.
After doing swings straight in front of me, I’ll turn around and do donkey kicks, Adductor and abductor Lifts, and a series of hip opener/closer motions.
These are all important movements to apply since they all replicate the kicking Motion in some way.
I prefer these rather than weights because weights don’t give me the resistance when I need it most. For example, if I do a simple knee raise to chest with weights, the resistance won’t be highest at the top. but if I use a rehab band for kicking, every single motion at the top of the movement is the highest form of resistance.
Because when we kick, we really want to drive through the ball and extend, maximizing our follow through. Using resistance bands is a safe and functional way to accomplish this movement.
Kicking With Rehab Bands
If you really want to start seeing huge explosion off of your kicks, dedicate an entire workout to kicking with rehab bands on.
There are some other rehab bands for kicking that can tie around your thighs and every time you do a forward or backward motion, there is resistance. These are more affordable but not as versatile as the entire rehab bands package.
I absolutely love these because they are lightweight, and safe on the ligaments.
If anything, it makes your ligaments and tendons stronger because you’re strengthening through the entire motion without added pressure to any joints.
There are leg weights for kicking and while I love to use those in certain situations as well, they can really wear and tear on your ankles and knee joints.
They both have a special place in my heart but the rehab bands for kicking are the winner in my opinion.
To do these movements, simply practice a kicking motion with ankle wraps, and then start adding a ball. Your distance might drop off by 10 to 15 yards, but if you want to take the next step forward in your strengths development, learn to train smarter, rather than kicking a hundred balls a day.
It’s better to get stronger physically, and technically each session, rather than just worried about how far the ball goes every time.
If you can really Master the art of the warm-up, and strength part of kicking, your accuracy and power will Skyrocket as a result. Learn to kick with rehab bands, and you’ll see huge explosion in your hips.
If you want to see some on how to unlock your hip flexors, click the short video below followed by the link just under it if you want to find out more. (They are affiliate links which I earn a commission at no cost to you)
Hip Mobility & Flexibility Exercises for Athletes
[su_highlight background=”#fff33b”]Click The Text To Learn How To Unlock Your Hip Flexors![/su_highlight]
Getting Stronger With Rehab Bands
Not only can we get stronger from the natural kicking motion and warm-ups, the most efficient way I’ve seen to get a good workout in is from time under tension lifts with resistance bands.
What this means is from the moment you start the motion in your exercise to the moment you finish that rep, that entire time you are moving is considered time under tension.
For example; if I do a squat, from the moment I start to go down to the moment I finished my rep at the top is considered my time under tension.
What most people do is go fast down and fast up and consider that a good rep.
The eccentric motion is an most important part of building speed and muscle.
The eccentric motion is the portion of the list where you go down or “the shortening phase.”
Using this to your advantage has been shown to provide bigger strength gains then you would lowering the weight at a faster pace. also, you can lift around 30% more weight in the eccentric phase then you can in the Concentric phase.
Therefore, since we want to be slow on the shortening,and explode up on the lengthening phase.
Again referring to squats, we would go slow down, then explode up maximizing the control, and strength of eccentric, and utilizing the power, and explosiveness of the push phase.
One thing I want to throw your away is isometric holds. This is where you simply hold a motion at its highest point, for lengths of 20, 30 or even 60 Seconds. The point of this is to challenge your stabilizer muscles and put tension on them so they can gain more endurance.
I love to use these when I’m at my house and want to get a quick workout in. I’ll simply do front raise holds, donkey kick holds, abductor, and adductor lift holds. I might do three sets of 20 second holds per exercise. obviously, you can go a lot more than that, this is just for a 5 minute or less workout.
Conclusion
If you want to get the rehab bands for kicking, there is a link here that will bring you to where I got mine.
Also, there are other bands that can be used for kicking which I will link to here.
You should use one for your warm-up, cool-down, and strength portion of kicking. The other bands (otherwise known as kbands) should be used for your actual kicking, and speed portion of it.
The reason for that is since the bands are attached to your hips, they allow you to drive your legs up quickly and are great for sprinting as well.
Let me know what you think about the exercises we talked about in the comments below!
Have a great day everyone, and stay amazing!
– Eric
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